Hands on with the Airturn BT-105

Hands free page turner for Mac, PC and iPad

While many musicians continue to take printed sheet music to their gigs, the growing amount of tablets and music score apps means there's now a viable digital alternative too.

The problem with the tablet route though is with turning pages - can you spare a hand to swipe the screen quick enough to show the next page of music?

Enter the Airturn BT-105 with two ATFS-2 pedals attached, a Bluetooth equipped device that you can turn pages with your feet. The BT-1045 is quite small with the two ATFS-2 pedals attached either side of it - very portable and gig bag friendly.

In the BT-105 is a rechargeable lithium polymer battery (around 100 hours possible on standby) and featured on the front panel are the main controls and connections; on/off switch, pedal sockets, USB socket and indicator light for usage/charging.

Using our iPad with the MusicReader PDF 4 app loaded (check out forScore and GigBook apps too), we found the Airturn BT-105 and the iPad worked very well together. Syncing up took only a few minutes; after switching the Airturn BT-105 on, go to your iPad's general settings page and turn Bluetooth recognition on. The iPad will then search for compatible devices and once the BT-105 has been sourced you can confirm the pairing with one click.

Firing up MusicReader PDF 4 and opening various music scores, turning pages with the ATFS-2 pedals proved fast, be it forward (one press on the right pedal) or backwards (left pedal press).

If you've long multi page recital pieces (complete with repeat sections) the ease of use will prove invaluable as many users, including Dream Theatre's Jordan Rudess, have verified. Alternatively, load your cover band's set list into your preferred music software and you can travel through each song as briskly as you wish.

Silent in use, quick in application and small in size, we can't think of a better device to make your iPad (or similar tablet) an indispensable means of viewing music scores on a gig, teaching lesson or recording session.